The Bridges of God
Donald A. McGavran
It is
of the
utmost
impor-
tance that the
Church understand
how peoples, not
merely individuals,
become Christian.
Known worldwide as perhaps the
foremost missiologist, Donald A.
McGavran was born in India of
missionary parents and returned
there as a third-generation mission-
ary himself in 1923, serving as a
director of religious education and
translating the Gospels in the
Chhattisgarhi dialect of Hindi. He
founded the School of World Mis-
sion at Fuller Theological Seminary.
McGavran died in 1990 at the age
of 93. McGavran authored several
influential books, including The
Bridges of God, and Understand-
ing Church Growth.
From The Bridges of God (Re-
vised Edition) by Donald Anderson
McGavran. Published in the
United Kingdom by World Domin-
ion Press, 1955. Revised edition
1981. Distributed in the United
States by Friendship Press, New
York. Used by permission.
The Bridges of God appeared in 1954, and it has since become
known as the classic summons for missionaries to utilize the “bridges”
of family and kinship ties within each people group thereby prompt-
ing “people movements” to Christ. This is contrasted with the “Mis-
sion Station Approach,” dominant in missionary strategy of the nine-
teenth century, whereby individual converts are gathered into
“colonies” or compounds isolated from the social mainstream.
McGavran claims that whereas the latter approach was necessary
and useful in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “a new
pattern is at hand, which, while new, is as old as the Church itself.”
The Crucial Question in Christian Missions
Much study has been devoted to world evangelization. We
know the answers to many questions about the propagation
of the Gospel. But what is perhaps the most important ques-
tion of all still awaits an answer. That question is: How do
peoples become Christian?
This article asks how clans, tribes, castes, in short how
peoples become Christian. Every nation is made up of various
layers of strata of society. In many nations each stratum is
clearly separated from every other. The individuals in each
stratum intermarry chiefly, if not solely, with each other. Their
intimate life is therefore limited to their own society, that is, to
their own people. They may work with others, they may buy
from and sell to the individuals of other societies, but their in-
timate life is wrapped up with the individuals of their own
people. Individuals of another stratum, possibly close neigh-
bors, may become Christians or Communists without the first
stratum being much concerned. But when individuals of their
own kind start becoming Christians, that touches their very
lives. How do chain reactions in these strata of society begin?
How do peoples become Christian?
Here is a question to which not speculation but knowl-
edge must urgently be applied. The question is how, in a
manner true to the Bible, can a Christian movement be estab-
lished in some class, caste, tribe or other segment of society
which will, over a period of years, so bring groups of its re-
lated families to Christian faith that the whole people is
Christianized in a few decades? It is of the utmost impor-
tance that the Church should understand how peoples, and
not merely individuals, become Christian.
Chapter 50 323
324 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD
The Unfamiliar in People
Movements
Individualistic Westerners cannot without spe-
cial effort grasp how peoples become Chris-
tian. The missionary movement is largely
staffed by persons from the West or by nation-
als trained in their ideas, and while evangeliza-
tion has been carried on with correct enough
views on how individuals have become Chris-
tian, there have been hazy or even erroneous
views on how peoples become Christian.
Western individualism obscures
group processes
In the West, Christianization is an ex-
tremely individualistic process. This is due to
various causes. For one thing, in Western na-
tions there are few exclusive subsocieties.
Then too, because freedom of conscience ex-
ists, one member of a family can become
Christian and live as a Christian without being
ostracized by the rest of the family. Further-
more, Christianity is regarded as true, even by
many who do not profess it. It is considered a
good thing to join the Church. A person is ad-
mired for taking a stand for Christ. There have
been no serious rivals to the Church. Thus in-
dividuals are able to make decisions as indi-
viduals without severing social bonds.
Again, with the disruption of clan and
family life following upon the industrial
revolution, Westerners became accustomed
to do what appealed to them as individuals.
As larger family groupings were broken up
through migration, the movement of rural
folk to the cities, and repeated shifts of
homes, people came to act for themselves
without consulting their neighbors or fami-
lies. A habit of independent decision was es-
tablished. In the Christian churches this habit
was further strengthened by the practice of
revival meetings appealing for individual de-
cisions to the accompaniment of great emo-
tion. Indeed, the theological presupposition
was not merely that salvation depended on
an individual act of faith in Christ (which is
unquestioned), but also that this act was
somehow of a higher order if it were done
against family opinion (which is dubious).
Separate individual accessions to the Church
were held by some to be not only a better, but
the only valid, way of becoming a Christian.
Had the question arisen as to how peoples
became Christian, the answer would have
been given that it was by individual after in-
dividual becoming soundly converted.
Of the social organism which is a people,
or of the desirability of preserving the culture
and community life, indeed, of enhancing
them through the process of conversion,
there tended to be little recognition. Peoples
were thought of as aggregates of individuals
whose conversion was achieved one by one.
The social factor in the conversion of peoples
passed unnoticed because peoples were not
identified as separate entities.
However, a people is not an aggregation of
individuals. In a true people intermarriage
and the intimate details of social intercourse
take place within the society. In a true people
individuals are bound together not merely by
common social practices and religious beliefs
but by common blood. A true people is a so-
cial organism which, by virtue of the fact that
its members intermarry very largely within its
own confines, becomes a separate race in their
minds. Since the human family, except in the
individualistic West, is largely made up of
such castes, clans and peoples, the Christian-
ization of each nation involves the prior Chris-
tianization of its various peoples as peoples.
Because of the intense battle against race
prejudice, the concept of separate races of
men is discredited in many circles. Missionar-
ies often carry this antipathy to race into their
work in tribes and castes who believe them-
selves to be separate races, marry within their
people and have an intense racial conscious-
ness. But to ignore the significance of race
hinders Christianization. It makes an enemy
of race consciousness, instead of an ally. It
does no good to say that tribal peoples ought
not to have race prejudice. They do have it
and are proud of it. It can be understood and
should be made an aid to Christianization.
What to do and what not to do
To Christianize a whole people, the first
thing not to do is snatch individuals out of it
into a different society. Peoples become
Christians where a Christward movement
occurs within that society. Bishop J. W. Pickett,
in his important study Christ’s Way to India’s
Heart, says:
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN
The process of extracting individuals from
their setting in Hindu or Moslem commu-
nities does not build a Church. On the con-
trary it rouses antagonism against Chris-
tianity and builds barriers against the
spread of the Gospel. Moreover, that pro-
cess has produced many unfortunate, and
not a few tragic results in the lives of those
most deeply concerned. It has deprived the
converts of the values represented by their
families and friends and made them depen-
dent for social support to the good life and
restraint on evil impulses upon men and
women, their colleagues in the Christian
faith, with whom they have found it diffi-
cult to develop fellowship and a complete
sense of community. It has sacrificed much
of the convert’s evangelistic potentialities
by separating him from his People. It has
produced anaemic Churches that know no
true leadership and are held together
chiefly by common dependence on the mis-
sion or the missionary.
Equally obviously the Christianization of a
people requires reborn men and women. A
mere change of name accomplishes nothing.
While the new convert must remain within his
people, he must also experience the new birth.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, set your affec-
tion on things above, not on things on the
earth.” The power of any People Movement to
Christ depends in great measure on the num-
ber of truly converted persons in it. We wish
to make this quite clear. The Christianization
of peoples is not assisted by slighting or for-
getting real personal conversion. There is no
substitute for justification by faith in Jesus
Christ or for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thus a Christward movement within a
people can be defeated either by extracting
the new Christians from their society (i.e. by
allowing them to be squeezed out by their
non-Christian relatives) or by the non-Chris-
tians so dominating the Christians that their
new life in Christ is not apparent. An incipi-
ent Christward movement can be destroyed
by either danger.
The group mind and group decision
To understand the psychology of the innu-
merable subsocieties which make up non-
Christian nations, it is essential that the leaders
of the Churches and missions strive to see life
from the point of view of a people, to whom
325
individual action is treachery. Among those
who think corporately only a rebel would
strike out alone, without consultation and
without companions. The individual does not
think of himself as a self-sufficient unit, but as
part of the group. His business affairs, his
children’s marriages,
his personal prob-
lems, or the difficul- A change of
ties he has with his
wife are properly religion
settled by group involves a
thinking. Peoples be-
come Christian as this community
group-mind is change. Only
brought into a
lifegiving relationship as its members
to Jesus as Lord. move together,
It is important to
note that the group does change
decision is not the become
sum of separate indi-
vidual decisions. The healthy and
leader makes sure constructive.
that his followers will
follow. The followers make sure that they are
not ahead of each other. Husbands sound out
wives. Sons pledge their fathers. “Will we as a
group move if so-and-so does not come?” is a
frequent question. As the group considers be-
coming Christian, tension mounts and excite-
ment rises. Indeed, a prolonged informal vote-
taking is under way. A change of religion
involves a community change. Only as its
members move together, does change become
healthy and constructive.
Groups are usually fissured internally. This
has a definite bearing on group decision. If in
some town or village there are 76 families of a
given people, they may be split into several
sub-groups. Often such divisions are formed
by rivalries between prominent men. Often
they are geographical: the lower section of the
village as against the upper section. Often they
are economic: the landed as opposed to the
landless. Often they depend on education,
marriage relationships, or attitudes toward
customs. Group thinking usually occurs at its
best within these sub-groups. A sub-group
will often come to decision before the whole.
Indeed, a sub-group often furnishes enough
social life for it to act alone.
326 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD
Peoples become Christian as a wave of de-
cision for Christ sweeps through the group
mind, involving many individual decisions
but being far more than merely their sum. This
may be called a chain reaction. Each decision
sets off others and the sum total powerfully af-
fects every individual. When conditions are
right, not merely each sub-group, but the en-
tire group concerned decides together.
Terms defined
We call this process a “People Movement.”
“People” is a more universal word than “tribe”,
“caste” or “clan.” It is more exact than “group.”
It fits everywhere. Therefore in this article we
shall speak of People Movements to Christ.
The Characteristic Pattern of the
Great Century
Dr. Latourette has given the name “the Great
Century” to the time between 1800 and 1914.
He says: “When consideration is given to the
difficulties which faced it, in the nineteenth
century, Christianity made amazing progress
all around the world. It came to the end of
the period on a rapidly ascending curve. Its
influence on culture was out of all propor-
tions to its numerical strength. It had an out-
standing role as a pioneer in new types of
education, in movements of the relief and
prevention of human suffering and in dis-
seminating ideas.”
How did Christianization proceed dur-
ing the Great Century? This is a most im-
portant question because most of our
present thinking is coloured by the mission-
ary effort of that century. When we think of
missions today, we think of those with
which we are familiar, and which prevailed
in China, Africa, India and other countries
during the Great Century. Since this century
produced a radically new and different ap-
proach, the older kind of missions which
existed for 1,800 years have tended to be
forgotten. The missionary and the Churches
tend to think that the only kind of missions
and the only kind of Christian-ization pos-
sible is that used with greater or lesser ef-
fect during the past 150 years. The Great
Century created a new method to meet a
new situation. Both situation and method
are worthy of our closest study.
The new situation described:
the gulf of separation
Missions were carried on from the ruling,
wealthy, literate, modern countries, which
were experiencing all the benefits of political
and religious freedom, an expanding produc-
tion, and universal education. In the year 1500,
European visitors to India and China de-
scribed countries which compared favourably
with their own. But by the nineteenth century
the West had progressed while the East had
stood still, so that there was a great gap be-
tween them. Western missionaries went to
poor, illiterate, medieval and agricultural
countries. The gap widened with the passage
of the years, for the progress of the West con-
tinued to be greater than that of the East.
While it is true that missionaries tried to iden-
tify themselves with the people, they were
never able to rid themselves of the inevitable
separateness which the great progress of their
home lands had imposed upon them.
This gulf became very clear in the living ar-
rangements which European and American
missionaries found necessary. Their standard
of living at home was many times higher than
that of the average citizen on the mission
fields, though it could not compare with that
of the few wealthy Chinese, Japanese and In-
dians. Modern medicine was unknown.
Health demanded big bungalows on large
sites. Servants were cheap and saved much
domestic labour. The people of the land gener-
ally walked, but the missionary was accus-
tomed to a conveyance and so he used one.
The colour of his skin also set him apart. He
could not melt into the generality of the inhab-
itants of the land as Paul could. He was a
white man, a member of the ruling race. To
this day in the rural sections of India, seven
years after independence, the white mission-
ary is frequently addressed as Sarkar (Govern-
ment). The missionary was an easy victim not
only to malaria but to intestinal diseases. He
had to be careful about what he ate. The West-
ern style of cooking agreed with him, whereas
the Eastern style did not. So in matters of food
also there came to be a great gulf between him
and the people of the land.
There were practically no bridges across
this gulf. There was nothing even remotely
similar to the Jewish bridge over which
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN
Christianity marched into the Gentile world.
Staggering numbers of people lived on the
fertile plains of Asia, but not one of them had
any Christian relatives! Even in the port cities
there were none. Més alliances between white
soldiery, rulers or commercial people and the
women of the various lands were so resented
on the one hand and despised on the other
that they served as barriers rather than
bridges. The normal flow of the Christian re-
ligion simply could not take place. Separated
by colour, standard of living, prestige, lit-
eracy, mode of travel, place of residence, and
many other factors, the missionary was, in-
deed, isolated from those to whom he
brought the message of salvation.
The missionaries did learn the languages
of the country and learned them well. They
served the people with love, taught their chil-
dren, visited in their homes, went with them
through famines and epidemics, ate with
them, bought from them and sold to them,
and, more than any other group of white men
in the tropics, were at one with them. Thus, it
will be said, this emphasis on the separate-
ness of the missionary is exaggerated. To the
student of the growth and spread of reli-
gions, however, it is apparent that these ca-
sual contacts described above are just that—
casual contacts. They are not the living
contacts, the contacts of tribe and race and
blood, which enable the non-Christian to say,
as he hears a Christian speak: “This messen-
ger of the Christian religion is one of my own
family, my own People, one of us.” Casual
contacts may win a few individuals to a new
faith, but unless these individuals are able to
start a living movement within their own so-
ciety, it does not start at all.
The separateness we describe seemed
likely to last a long time. It existed in an un-
changing world, where the dominance of
the West and the dependence of the East
seemed to be permanent. Missionaries
thought, “There will be centuries before us,
and, in a 400-year relationship like that of
Rome to her dependent peoples, we shall
gradually bring these peoples also into the
Christian faith.”
This grave separateness faced Christian
missions during the Great Century. When the
churches and their missionaries have no rela-
327
tions, no contacts and no bridges over inter-
racial gulfs, what do they do? How do they
carry out the command of their Lord? When
there is no living approach, how do they go
about the Christianization of peoples?
The new method evolved: the exploratory
mission-station approach
If there is any aspect that is typical of
modern missions, it is the mission station
with its gathered colony. Missionaries facing
the gulf of separation built mission stations
and gathered colonies of Christians.
They acquired a piece of land, often with
great difficulty. They built residences suitable
for white men. Then they added churches,
schools, quarters in which to house helpers,
hospitals, leprosy homes, orphanages and
printing establishments. The mission station
was usually at some center of communica-
tion. From it extensive tours were made into
the surrounding country-side. It was home to
the missionary staff and all the activities of
the mission took place around the station.
Together with building the station, the
missionaries gathered converts. It was ex-
ceedingly difficult for those hearing the Good
News for the first time, knowing nothing of
Christians, or of Christianity save that it was
the religion of the invading white men, to ac-
cept the Christian religion. Those who did so
were usually forced out of their own homes
by fierce ostracism. They came to live at the
mission colony, where they were usually em-
ployed. Orphans were sheltered. Slaves were
bought and freed. Women were rescued.
Some healed patients became Christian.
Many of these usually came to live at the mis-
sion station. They were taught various means
of earning a livelihood and directed into vari-
ous forms of service. They formed the gath-
ered colony.
This kind of mission approach took shape
out of the individualistic background typical
of much Protestantism in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries. To be a Christian was to
come out and be separate. For converts to
leave father and mother invested their deci-
sions with a particular validity. To gather a
compound full of Christians out of a non-
Christian population seemed a good way to
proceed. Frequently it was also the only pos-
328 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD

sible way. The universal suspicion and often Where the number of conversions re-
the violent hostility with which Christianity mained small decade after decade, there the
was regarded would have forced into the mission remained the dominant partner and
gathered colony pattern even those who con- the Mission Station Approach continued and,
sciously sought integration. indeed, was strengthened. It was strength-
This, then, was the pattern which was ened because the gathered colony furnished
characteristic of most beginnings in the Great Christian workers so that the mission could
Century. We call it the exploratory mission expand mission healing, mission teaching
and mission
preaching. Where
A moderate amount of missionary assistance, at places the number of con-
versions mounted
where the churches feel their need, produces results
steadily with every
far beyond that which those accustomed to the passing decade,
there the church
mission station tradition would consider possible.
became the domi-
station approach, but from the point of view nant partner and the mission turned up the
of the resulting churches, it was the explor- hill road. It started using the People Move-
atory gathered colony approach. ment Approach. Scores of thousands became
It was excellent strategy in its day. It was a Christians.
probe to ascertain which peoples were ready These two roads, these two ways of carry-
to become Christian. Christianity must be ing on mission work, are distinct and differ-
seen to be stable before it will be accepted as ent. Clear thinking about missions must
a way of salvation. Peoples are not going to make a sharp differentiation between them.
commit their destinies to a faith which is here Each must be described separately. The
today and gone tomorrow. Men must see People Movements, the hill road, will be de-
over a period of years what the Christian life scribed in the next section. The remainder of
means and what Christ does to persons and this section will be devoted to describing the
to groups. While the Good News is first be- widening road on the plain, the way in which
ing presented and the Christian life demon- the exploratory phase gradually turned into
strated the mission station and the gathered the permanent Mission Station Approach or
colony are essential. As we look back over the gathered colony approach.
last hundred years it seems both necessary Small response was not expected by the
and desirable for there to have been this ap- early missionaries. The exploratory Mission
proach. With all its limitations, it was the best Station Approach was not launched as an ac-
strategy for the era. This approach has been commodation to a hardhearted and
no mistake. It fitted the age which produced irresponsive population. It was regarded as a
it. It was inevitable. first stage after which great ingathering would oc-
cur. Even after the Basel Mission had lost eight
The road branches according to response of its first ten missionaries in nine years, the
This beginning, adopted by practically all heroic Andreas Riis wrote back from the Gold
missions, may be considered as a road run- Coast in Africa, “Let us press on. All Africa
ning along a flat and somewhat desolate plain must be won for Christ. Though a thousand
and then dividing, one branch to continue missionaries die, send more.” The exploratory
along the plain, the other to climb the green gathered colony approach was adopted with
fertile hills. Whether missions continued on the expectation that the Christian faith would
the flat accustomed road (of the gathered sweep non-Christian lands bringing them un-
church approach) or ascended the high road told blessings.
by means of the People Movement Approach But these expectations were often frus-
depended on the response given to the Chris- trated by meager response. In the light of
tian message by the population and on the the event Professor Latourette can now se-
missionaries’ understanding of that response. renely write:
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN
The advanced cultures and faiths of Asia
and North Africa did not yield so readily as
did those of the primitive folk, either to
Western civilization or to Christianity. This
was to be expected. It has usually been char-
acteristic of advanced cultures and their re-
ligions that they have been much slower to
disintegrate before an invading civilization.
But the meager response was not expected
by the early messengers of the Church. It was
disappointing.
A factor in the small response, whose im-
portance cannot be overestimated, is that,
partly because of the individualistic bias of the
missionaries and partly because of the resis-
tance of the hearers, conversions were mainly
out of the nation. Converts felt that they were
joining not merely a new religion, but an en-
tirely foreign way of living—proclaimed by
foreigners, led by foreigners and ruled by for-
eigners. Converts came alone. Often even their
wives refused to come with them. Naturally
conversions were few. A vicious circle was es-
tablished: the few becoming Christian one by
one set such a pattern that it was difficult for a
Christward movement to be started, and by
the lack of a movement converts continued to
come one by one and in very small numbers.
In many parts of the field it was psychologi-
cally difficult for a person to become a Chris-
tian as it would be for a white man in South
Africa to join a Negro church knowing that his
children would intermarry with the black chil-
dren. The person not only became a Christian,
but he was generally believed to have “joined
another race.” When, among peoples which
intermarry only amongst themselves, a man
becomes a Christian, his old mother is likely to
reproach him, saying, “Now whom will your
sons marry? They cannot get wives from
amongst us any more.”
The exploratory approach becomes
permanent: terms defined
Where meager response continued, there
gathered colony missions gradually accom-
modated themselves to carrying on mission
work among populations which would not
obey the call of God. Once this occurred we
may say that the mission, which had started
its road-building on the plain, with the inten-
tion of reaching high fertile land as soon as
possible, settled down to road-building on
329
the barren plain as its God-given duty. It
found plenty of good work to do. It never ad-
mitted, even to itself, that it had really given
up hope of reaching the hills; but that is what
had actually happened.
The churches born of the mission station
approach
The first aim of missions is the establish-
ment of churches. So, as we start to examine
the results of the Mission Station Approach
we turn to an inspection of the kind of
churches which mission stations have fa-
thered. These we shall call Mission Station
churches or gathered colony churches.
They have some favorable characteristics.
They are composed of greatly transformed in-
dividuals. The membership is literate. They
come to church with hymn books. They can
read their Bibles. Many among them are spe-
cially trained beyond the ordinary school. In
some stations there are many high school and
college graduates on the church rolls. The
membership contains a goodly proportion of
day laborers and artisans, household helps and
casual labourers, as well as teachers, preachers,
medical workers, clerks, and other white-collar
workers. In some places factory and railway
employees form a considerable part of the
membership. On the whole the Mission Station
Churches are made up of people who are
soundly Christian. There is not much supersti-
tion among them and not much temptation to
revert to the old non-Christian faiths. The
membership is proud of being Christian, and
feels that it has gained tremendously by be-
longing to the Christian fellowship. There are,
of course, many nominal Christians and some
whose conduct brings shame on the church.
But even these are likely to send their children
to Sunday School and church!
They are organized into strong congrega-
tions. They have good permanent church
buildings on land indubitably theirs. The
pastors and ministers are usually qualified
people. The services or worship are held
regularly. The elders, deacons and other
elected members form church councils and
govern the church. The giving would prob-
ably compare favorably in regard to percent-
age of income with that in the Western
churches, though often most of it is provided
330 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD
by those in mission employ. In some churches
the giving is exemplary and there are many
tithers. All told, the impression is that of
small, tight, well-knit communities, but-
tressed by intermarriage and considering
themselves to be a part of world Christianity.
On the debit side, these mission station
churches are lacking in the qualities needed
for growth and multiplication. They are, in
truth, gathered churches, made up of indi-
vidual converts, or “brands snatched from
the burning,” or famine orphans, or a mix-
ture of all three. The individual converts and
rescued persons have usually been disowned
by their non-Christian relatives. The famine
orphans have no close connection with lov-
ing brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts.
Furthermore, the lives of these Christians
have been so changed, and they find such
satisfaction in the fellowship of their own
sort (i.e. other mission station Christians) that
they feel immeasurably superior to their own
unconverted relatives.This is particularly true
when they come from the oppressed classes.
The second generation of Christians is even
farther removed from their non-Christian
relatives than the first, while in the third gen-
eration, in the very land where they live, the
gathered church members know as a rule no
non-Christian relatives at all. The precious
linkages which each original member had as
he came from non-Christian society and
which are so needed for reproduction are all
gone. A new people has been established
which intermarries only within itself and
thinks of itself as a separate community.
The Christians of the gathered colony ap-
proach have a vivid realization of the power
of education. It has been education, they feel,
that has lifted them out of the depths. They
are keen for their children to receive as much
education as possible. They skimp and scrape
that their boys and girls may go on to school
and proceed as far as possible on the road to a
B.A. or an M.A. But they do not always have a
vivid experience of the power of God. Many
would grant that it was Christian education
which had lifted them—an education given to
them in the name of Jesus Christ. But on such
experiences as the power of the Spirit, the for-
giveness of sins and the blessedness of faith,
many mission station Christians are likely to
have a weak witness. “Become Christians and
educate your children,” they are likely to say.
“It won’t do you much good but it will be
wonderful for your sons and daughters.”
Gathered colony churches usually have a
vivid consciousness of the mission as their
parent. The churches tend to feel that it is the
business of the missionary to head up a
wealthy social service agency, designed to
serve the Christian community. It sometimes
happens that the members of a mission station
church, sensing the obvious fact that there is
only limited employment in a mission station,
look on new converts as a labor union would
on immigrants. They draw the easy conclu-
sion that if more people become Christians,
the resources of the mission will be spread
thinner and there will be less for each of the
existing Christians. Cases have occurred
where they have actually discouraged possible
converts from becoming Christian.
Gathered colony churches are often over-
staffed. They are too richly served by foreign
missions. Their members acquire a vested in-
terest in the status quo. In one typical mission
station church of 700 souls we find a mission-
ary in charge of two primary schools and one
middle school for day pupils, another in
charge of a middle boarding school for girls, a
missionary doctor and his nurse wife who
run a hospital, and an evangelistic missionary
who gives half his time to the Christian com-
munity. Then there is a national minister who
is a high school graduate with theological
training, five high school graduates who
teach the older boys and seven high school
graduates who teach the older girls, four
evangelists, five Bible women and a primary
school staff of six. Missionaries, who, with
less than half these resources, are shepherding
large numbers of Christians who have come
to Christ in some People Movement, may
gasp with unbelief that such heavy occupa-
tion could occur. Yet both the national and the
missionary leaders of such mission station
churches consider that they really are manag-
ing with a minimum degree of foreign aid!
But—the era is drawing to a close
However, as Latourette points out, the era
is passing. The days in which the mission sta-
tions can exert a major influence on the af-
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN
fairs of Eastern nations are drawing to a
close. The sleeping nations are now awake.
At the headquarters of the provincial and na-
tional governments are whole departments,
amply provided with millions of money
raised by taxes, whose chief duty it is to plan
for the future of the nations. The tens of thou-
sands of students who journey to the West
for education, the flood of publications in all
the major languages of the land, the advent
of the movie, the loudspeaker and programs
of social education, the sensitiveness to for-
eign criticism, the intense desire to prove
their own nation the equal of any on earth,
and the resentment felt at foreign leader-
ship—all these presage the end of an era in
which mission stations in the urban centers
exerted an influence out of all proportion to
their numbers.
Mission schools in Asia and North Africa
no longer have the influence which they once
had. In the beginning they were the only
schools. But now they form a small percentage
of the total, and are being crowded into the
background. It is still true that there are a few
outstanding Christian schools in most coun-
tries, mission schools, convent schools, which
are known as the best in the land. Even so,
they do not get one percent of the students.
There was a day when they had 50 percent of
the sons of the leading families. Mission edu-
cationists cannot dodge the plain fact that mis-
sion schools cannot expect to wield the influ-
ence which they did in the days when Western
cultures were first arriving in Asia and Africa.
What is true of schools is also true of mis-
sion station hospitals. Up till 1945 the Central
Provinces of India had not produced a single
qualified doctor. Its university had no stan-
dard medical school. The only fully qualified
doctors were a few immigrants from other
provinces and missionary doctors from
abroad. But today there are four hundred stu-
dents in the medical college of its university.
As this flood of physicians flows out over the
cities and towns and eventually the villages
of this province, the present near monopoly
of the Christian hospitals is likely to be de-
stroyed. The same sort of thing is taking
place in one awakened nation after another.
Non-Christian nations are impatient with
foreign tutelage. They believe it is demean-
331
ing to their national pride to admit to the
need for guidance from any Western nation.
The East, particularly India, honestly be-
lieves that, except for mechanization and in-
dustrialization, the West has little to give to
the “spiritual East.” The excoriations heaped
upon Western nations by their own proph-
ets, crying out against race prejudice, eco-
nomic injustice and recurrent wars, are
taken at their face value by the nations of
the East. The West comes to be looked upon
as soul-less, materialistic, unjust, money-
mad, and moved by none but ulterior mo-
tives. The temper of these days in the East is
not that of humbly sitting at the feet of mis-
sionary tutors.
It would be giving a distorted impression
if the last few paragraphs were to imply that
Christian missions have no more usefulness
as cultural “hands across the sea.” In the
days ahead when nations are forced into
closer and closer co-operation, all friendly ef-
forts to interpret nations to each other will be
of value. The continued residence of Western-
ers in the East will doubtless do good. But
the days of great secular influence of foreign
mission stations apart from great national
Churches are probably about over.
They should be over for a further reason:
there is now a use for mission resources
which will do more for nation building, more
for international peace, and more for the
Church than the further penetration of non-
Christian faiths and cultures from the van-
tage point of a mission station.
Salute and farewell
So has run the characteristic pattern of the
Great Century. An age of tremendous mis-
sion expansion in terms of geography and in-
fluence; an age of heroism and devotion and
self-sacrifice; an age of the meeting of two
cultures separated by a wide gulf which,
through the mission stations, outposts of
goodwill and faith, has slowly drawn closer
to the point where one world is in sight; an
age when there is hardly a race or nation in
which there is not found the Church.
So has run its pattern. But that age is now
over. A new age is upon us. A new pattern is
demanded. A new pattern is at hand, which,
while new, is as old as the Church itself. It is a
332 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD
God-designed pattern by which not ones but
thousands will acknowledge Christ as Lord,
and grow into full discipleship as people after
people, clan after clan, tribe after tribe and
community after community are claimed for
and nurtured in the Christian faith.
The God-given People Movements
While the typical pattern of missionary activ-
ity has been that of the Mission Station Ap-
proach, occasionally People Movements to
Christ have resulted. These have not as a rule
been sought by missionaries—though in
Oceania, Indonesia and Africa there have been
some exceptions. The movements are the out-
come of the mysterious movement of the
Spirit of God. Their pattern of growth is very
different from that described in the last chap-
ter. They have provided over 90 percent of the
growth of the newer churches throughout the
world. The great bulk of the membership and
of the congregations of the younger churches
consist of converts and the descendants of
converts won in People Movements.
In spite of this, we maintain that People
Movements were the exception and that the
typical approach of the last century was the
Mission Station Approach. The number of
mission stations from which Christian move-
ments have started is small compared with
the number serving static churches. Mission
enterprises are, for the most part, those
which serve non-Christians and gathered
colony churches. The leadership of many
conferences on missions comes largely from
those who know and are immersed in the
Mission Station Approach. And, as Dr.
Hendrik Kraemer writes: “Missionary think-
ing and planning in this revolutionary period
are still overwhelmingly influenced by the
Mission Station Approach.” The Mission Sta-
tion Approach must then be taken as the
typical outcome of the past years, and the
People Movements as the exceptions.
In dividing mission work into these two
varieties—that operating through the Mission
Station Approach and that operating through
the People Movements—it is recognized that
some mission work cannot be classified under
either head. For example, the translation and
printing of the Scriptures. We are not attempt-
ing an exhaustive classification, but a practical
one into which more than 90 per cent of mis-
sionary activity can be placed.
Some people movements described
Adoniram Judson went to Burma as a mis-
sionary to the cultured Buddhist Burmese.
But he took under his wing a rough character,
by name Ko Tha Byu, a Karen by race. The
Karens were among the backward tribes of
Burma. They were animistic peasants and
were supposed by the Burmese to be stupid
inferior people. “You can teach a buffalo, but
not a Karen,” was the common verdict.
Judson spent six months trying to teach this
former criminal, now his servant, the mean-
ing of the redemptive death of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and made such little progress that he
was inclined to take the common verdict as
true. However, he persisted, and a few
months later Ko Tha Byu became a con-
vinced, if not a highly illuminated, Christian.
As Judson toured Burma, speaking to the
Burmese of that land, Ko Tha Byu, the camp
follower, spoke to the humble Karen in each
vicinity. The Karens started becoming Chris-
tian. Here a band of ten families, there one or
two, and yonder a jungle settlement of five
families accepted the Lordship of Christ. We
do not have the data to prove that those who
came were interrelated, but it is highly prob-
able that connected families were coming in. A
chain reaction was occurring. We can reason-
ably assume that among his close relatives
alone, to say nothing of cousins and second
cousins, Ko Tha Byu had a host of excellent
living contacts. The early converts doubtless
came from among these, and their relatives.
Judson, translating the Bible into Burmese,
was concerned with more important matters
than a Christian movement among a back-
ward tribe. For years he considered the Karen
converts a side issue. However, the next gen-
eration of missionaries included some who
were veritable Pauls, expanding the move-
ment as far along the paths and across the
rice paddies as possible. Today there is a
mighty Christian Movement among the
Karens and their related tribes in Burma,
numbering hundreds and thousands of souls.
The Christian Karens are the educated
Karens and will provide the leadership for
the mixed population of Karens, Kachins and
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN 333

other tribes which predominate in parts of conscious of their own salvation. People
Burma. The Christward Movement among Movements in themselves do not encourage
the Karens may well be the source of a the production of nominal Christians.
church numbering millions, and exercising a Up in the north of Pakistan there was a
decisive influence upon the history of all lowly people called Churas. They were the ag-
South-East Asia. ricultural laborers in a mixed Muslim and
By contrast, the Mission Station Approach Hindu civilization. They formed about 7 per
to the Buddhist Burmese has yielded its ordi- cent of the total population, and were Un-
nary quota of small, static mission station touchables. They were oppressed. They
churches with a membership of perhaps skinned dead cattle, cured the skins, collected
20,000 souls for all Burma. the bones and sold them. They had been
The Karen Christians are good Christians. largely overlooked by the missionaries preach-
In a hundred sections of Burma there are ing Christ to the respectable members of the
communities of Christian Karens with their Hindu and Muslim communities, and organiz-
own church building, their own pastor, their ing their few hard-won converts into mission
own tradition of regular worship, their own station churches. Then a man named Ditt from
Sunday school, and a Christian tribal life among the Churas turned to Christ, continued
which augurs well for the permanence of the to live among his people, despite their at-
Christian Churches of Burma. The Karens, tempts at ostracism, and gradually brought his
discipled through a People Movement, and relatives to the Christian faith. The missionar-
now in the process of perfecting, are not un- ies were at first dubious about admitting to the
der the delusion that a nominal Christianity Christian fellowship these lowest of the low,
is worth anything to God. The thousands of lest the upper castes and the Muslims take of-
churches scattered across the country contain fense and come to think of the Christian enter-
a normal proportion of earnest Spirit-filled prise as an “untouchable” affair. But those who
Christians. They are “reborn Baptists” who became Christians were pastored and taught
will compare favorably with the reborn Bap- and organized into churches. Because the con-
tists of any land. verts came as groups without social dislocation
the efforts of the pastors and the missionaries
We stress this because it is a mistake to as-
sume that People Movement Christians, could be given largely to teaching and preach-
merely because they have come to the Chris- ing. Attention did not have to be diverted to
tian faith in chains of families, must inevita-providing jobs and wives, houses and land for
individual converts. The Mission to
whom God had entrusted this Move-
There is so much that is mysterious ment was made up of devout men and
women and they gave themselves to the
and beyond anything we can ask or
task. The outcome was at the end of
think, and so much evident working of about eighty years there are no more
divine Power, that we must confess that Churas in that section of India. They have
all become Christians.
People Movements are gifts of God. Whereas the Church in mission sta-
tion areas often numbers no more than
bly be nominal Christians. Such an assump- one-tenth of 1 per cent of the total popula-
tion is usually based on prejudice, not fact. tion, in the Chura area the Church numbers 7
All Churches face the problem of how to per cent of the population. There are congrega-
avoid creating nominal Christians. Even tions in many of the villages and a Christian
Western Churches, made up of only those in- witness is maintained, not by foreign mis-
dividual converts who testify to regeneration, sionaries, but by the citizens of Pakistan.
soon come to have a second and third gen- In Indonesia there is a large mission work.
eration who easily grow up to be nominal In addition to static gathered colonies there
Christians. The policies of the churches vary have been also a comparatively large number
in their ability to produce Christians vividly of God-given People Movements. In the
334 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD
north of Sumatra there is a flourishing Batak
People Movement, numbering hundreds of
thousands. In 1937, on the island of Nias, off
the north-west coast of Sumatra, there were
102,000 Christians: in 1916 there were none.
In the northern parts of the Celebes the
Minahasa tribes were by 1940 fairly solidly
Christian and in the center the growth of
People Movements was rapid. There were
tribal movements toward Christ in the
Moluccas, the Sangi and the Talaud Islands.
Around the year 1930 between eight and ten
thousand a year were being baptized in
Dutch New Guinea. By 1936 the number of
Protestant Christians was reported to be
1,610,533. The Roman Church also has in-
creased by numerous People Movements. In
1937 there were 570,974 members of the Ro-
man Catholic Church. After 1950 new large
People Movements in Sumatra and after 1960
in Irian and Kalimantan have taken place.
The only instance in the entire world of a
hundred thousand Muslims being won to
Christ occurs in Indonesia, in the midst of
these numerous People Movements. It is also
interesting that in Indonesia there is appar-
ently a bridge between the natives and the
Chinese immigrants, a bridge over which
Christianity can cross. If this were strength-
ened it might well happen that more Chinese
would become Christian indirectly via the
People Movements of Indonesia than have
been won in China itself.
In Africa there have been a large number
of People Movements. The day is not far off
when most of Africa south of the Sahara will
have been discipled.
There is an instructive case of People
Movements in the Gold Coast. These have
grown into a great Presbyterian Church.
For 19 years (1828-47) the Basel Mission of
Switzerland battled to establish a foothold
in the Gold Coast. Of the 16 missionaries
sent out ten died shortly after arrival. The
daring expedient had to be adopted of
bringing in eight West Indian families to
demonstrate that black men could read the
white man’s Book, and to provide mission-
aries less susceptible to the ravages of the
climate. During this time there had not
been a single baptism. The first four bap-
tisms were in 1847 among the Akim
Abuakwa tribe. The following table shows
how the Church grew.
137,000
Number of Church Members
1953
57,000
1932
24,000
12,000 1918
9,000 1894
4 365 1,581 1890
1847 1858
1868
1847 to 1953
Till about 1870 the records show evidence
of the exploratory Mission Station Approach.
Slaves were purchased, freed, and employed
at the mission stations for instruction. Run-
away slaves were given shelter. Laborers on
mission buildings were settled on mission
land. In 1868 there was one missionary for
each thirty Christians. The Basel Mission had
a gathered colony at each of its nine mission
stations. But in the decade 1870 to 1880 outly-
ing chains of families started becoming
Christian, and several stations among the
Tsui-speaking tribes began to be surrounded
by small Christian groups in scattered vil-
lages. Schools were established in each and
the groups gradually became churches. An
important feature of this movement, like
many other African People Movements, was
that pagan parents frequently sent their chil-
dren to Christian schools, desiring them to
become Christians. The school thus had enor-
mous influence.
Early growth was tribe-wise. Teacher-
preachers, the slightly educated first genera-
tion Christian workers on whom so much of
the discipling of the tribes of Africa has de-
pended, were usually recruited from each
tribe in which a Christian movement started.
They were then trained and sent back to that
tribe to teach others, shepherd the Christians
and win others to Christ. Later, as Christian
movements arose in practically all the tribes,
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN
they became a uniting factor in the life of the
nation, and workers were appointed more or
less regardless of tribal relationships.
The churches born of people movements
The most obvious result of Christian mis-
sions which have been fathering and further-
ing Christward movements is a tremendous
host of Christian churches. It has been calcu-
lated that there are well over a hundred thou-
sand congregations of Christians brought to a
knowledge of God through recent Christian
People Movements. These exist in most of the
non-Christian countries.
Let us consider the unexpectedly large
number of People Movements. The islands of
the Pacific have been largely discipled by
People Movements. India has its extensive
list of movements from the Malas and
Madigas, the Nagas and Garas, the Mahars
and Bhils, and many others. Indonesia and
Burma total well over a score of People
Movements of some power. Africa has nu-
merous tribes in which the churches are
growing in tribe-wise fashion. Two new
People Movements are being reported in
1980: One in Mindanao and one in Mexico.
Our list might be made much larger. Each of
these hundreds of People Movements is mul-
tiplying Christian congregations as it grows.
These scores of thousands of congregations
have many features in common. Many mem-
bers of the churches are illiterate. In some
lands the percentage of illiteracy in the People
Movement churches is over 80. The pastors of
the churches are usually men with about
seven years of schooling plus some seminary
training. The church buildings are often tem-
porary adobe or wattle buildings, though
there are many well-built churches among the
older congregations. In new People Move-
ments, the missionary usually plays an impor-
tant role—starting, funding, and developing
them. The pastoring of the congregations is al-
most entirely in the hands of the nationals
however. In older, larger People Movements
to-day national ministers head the Church,
while missionaries work as assistants directed
by the church council. The services to Chris-
tians, so marked in the Mission Station Ap-
proach, are very much curtailed. The numbers
of children are so great that, aside from small
335
unsatisfactory primary schools, few children
get a chance at education. In the mission sta-
tion churches it is common practice for every
child to be sent, largely at mission expense,
through school as far as his intelligence will al-
low him to go. But in the People Movement
churches the bulk of the Christian population
has available to it only such educational ad-
vantages as the average non-Christian shares.
This makes for an illiterate and ignorant
church membership.
In some African countries, the school pic-
ture is totally different. Government does its
education through missions. In such lands
the children of the People Movements have
excellent educational opportunities and the
membership of the churches is growing up
largely literate.
Scattered as the congregations are it is diffi-
cult to reach them with medical aid. Cholera
and small-pox epidemics, sudden death from
cerebral malaria, infant maladies which carry
off children like flies, and health conditions
which are a scandal to the human race, are
characteristic of these myriad rural churches.
Yet People Movement Churches are re-
markably stable. There are reversions, spe-
cially in the early days, but on the whole,
once a people has become Christian, it stays
Christian even in the face of vigorous perse-
cution. In addition to the faith of each indi-
vidual and the courage which comes from
world-wide fellowship, the very bonds of re-
lationship and social cohesion keep weak in-
dividuals from denying the faith.
Unvalued pearls
One of the curious facts about People
Movements is that they have seldom been
sought or desired. Pickett records, in Christian
Mass Movements in India, that most People
Movements have actually been resisted by the
leaders of the church and mission where they
started. These leaders often had grave doubts
whether it was right to take in groups of indi-
viduals, many of whom seemed to have little
ascertainable personal faith. Nevertheless, de-
spite a certain degree of repression, move-
ments did occur. One wonders what would
have happened had missions from the begin-
ning of the “Great Century” been actively
searching and praying for the coming of
336 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD
Christward marches by the various peoples
making up the population of the world.
Those People Movements which did oc-
cur were seldom really understood. The
way of corporate decision was obscured by
the Western preference for individual deci-
sion. The processes of perfecting the
churches were confused with the process
by which a people turns from idols to serve
the living God. Even where there has been
great growth, as in parts of Africa, faulty
understanding of People Movements has
resulted in much less than maximum
growth and has caused needless damage to
tribal life.
Christward movements of peoples are
the supreme goal of missionary effort.
Many who read this book will not agree
with this, and, indeed, it has never been
generally accepted. Yet we not only affirm
it, but go further and claim that the vast
stirrings of the Spirit which occur in People
Movements are God-given. We dare not
think of People Movements to Christ as
merely social phenomena. True, we can ac-
count for some of the contributing factors
which have brought them about; but there
is so much that is mysterious and beyond
anything we can ask or think, so much that
is a product of religious faith, and so much
evident working of divine Power, that we
must confess that People Movements are
gifts of God. It is as if in the fullness of time
God gives to His servants the priceless be-
ginning of a People Movement. If that suc-
ceeds, the church is firmly planted. If it
fails, the missionary forces are back to the
preliminary stages of exploration. Yet the
essential recognition that the People Move-
ments to Christ is the supreme goal is not
often made by Christian leaders. Gifts of
God come and go unrecognized; while
man-directed mission work is carried faith-
fully, doggedly forward.
It is time to recognize that when revival re-
ally begins in China, Japan, Africa, the Mus-
lim world, and India, it will probably appear
in the form of People Movements to Christ.
This is the way in which Evangelical Chris-
tianity spread in Roman Catholic Europe at
the time of the Reformation. It is the best way
for it to spread in any land.
Five Great Advantages
People Movements have five considerable ad-
vantages. First, they have provided the Christian
movement with permanent churches rooted in the
soil of hundreds of thousands of villages. For their
continued economic life they are quite inde-
pendent of Western missions. They are accus-
tomed (unfortunately too accustomed) to a
low degree of education. Yet their devotion
has frequently been tested in the fires of perse-
cution and found to be pure gold. They are
here to stay. They are permanent comrades on
the pilgrim way.
They have the advantage of being naturally
indigenous. In the Mission Station Approach
the convert is brought in as an individual to a
pattern dominated by the foreigner. The
foreigner has set the pace and the style, often
to his own dismay. But such denationalization
is a very minor affair in true People
Movements. In them the new Christians
seldom see the missionary. They are immersed
in their own cultures. Their style of clothing, of
eating and of speaking continues almost
unchanged. Their churches are necessarily
built like their houses—and are as indigenous
as anyone could wish. They cannot sing or
learn foreign tunes readily, so local tunes are
often used. Thus an indigenous quality, highly
sought and rarely found by leaders of the
Mission Station Approach churches, is
obtained without effort by the People
Movement churches. Church headquarters,
however, need to make special efforts to keep
thoroughly indigenous their training of People
Movement youth and leadership.
People Movements have a third major advan-
tage. With them “the spontaneous expansion of
the Church” is natural. The phrase “spontane-
ous expansion” sums up the valuable contri-
bution to missionary thinking made by
Roland Allen and World Dominion. It re-
quires that new converts be formed into
churches which from the beginning are fully
equipped with all spiritual authority to mul-
tiply themselves without any necessary refer-
ence to the foreign missionaries. These might
be helpful as advisers or assistants but
should never be necessary to the complete-
ness of the Church or to its power of unlim-
ited expansion. Spontaneous expansion in-
volves a full trust in the Holy Spirit and a
 DONALD A. McGAVRAN 337

recognition that the ecclesiastical traditions of niques of the all-pervading gathered colony
the older churches are not necessarily useful approach. But once these are recognized and
to the younger churches arising out of the renounced by the leaders of the People
missions from the West. New groups of con- Movement churches, it becomes compara-
verts are expected to multiply themselves in tively easy for spontaneous expansion to oc-
the same way as did the new groups of con- cur. Missions can then, like Paul, deliberately
verts who were the attempt to use the relatively unplanned ex-
early churches. Advo- pansion of a Christward People Movement to
In order to be cates of spontaneous achieve still greater and more significant en-
called a bridge, expansion point out largement. Thus we come to the most
that foreign directed marked advantage of these movements.
a connection movements will in the These movements have enormous possibilities
end lead to sterility of growth. That these possibilities are to-day
must be large
and antagonism to largely ignored and unrecognized even by
enough to their sponsors, and the leader of the churches does not diminish
that therefore the either the truth or the importance of this fact.
provide for
methods now being The group movements are fringed with
the baptism pursued, here called exterior growing points among their own
the Mission Station peoples. As Paul discovered, the Palestinian
of enough
Approach, will never movement had growing points in many
groups in a bring us within mea- places outside that country. Just so, every
surable distance of Christward movement has many possibilities
short enough
the evangelization of of growth on its fringes. For example, the
time and a the world. Madigas have become Christians in large
Desirable as spon- numbers. They are the laborers of South In-
small enough
taneous expansion is, dia. They have migrated to many places in
area to create it is a difficult ideal India and even abroad. One cannot help
for the Mission Sta- wondering whether a fervent proclamation
a People
tion Approach by a modern Madiga St. Paul carrying the
Movement in churches to achieve. news that “We Madigas are becoming Chris-
They might be freed tian by tens of thousands each year: we have
the other
from all bonds to the found the Savior and have as a people come
community. Western churches, into possession of the unsearchable riches of
they might be con- Christ,” might not start Madiga Movements
vinced that they had all the spiritual author- in many parts of the world.
ity needed to multiply themselves, they People Movements also have internal
might be filled with the Holy Spirit and growing points; that is, the unconverted
abound in desire to win others to Christ, and pockets left by any such sweeping move-
yet—just because they form a separate ment. Here the leaders of the Christian forces
people and have no organic linkages with must be alert to see to it that strategic door-
any other neighboring people—they would ways are entered while they are open. Door-
find it extremely difficult to form new ways remain open for about one generation.
churches. In People Movement churches, on Then they close to the ready flow of the
the contrary, spontaneous expansion is natu- Christian religion. Until the discipling of the
ral. Both the desire to win their “own fold” entire people, there will be both internal and
and the opportunity to bear witness in unaf- external growing points. Both will yield large
fected intimate conversation are present to a returns if cultivated.
high degree. There is abundant contact Of rarer occurrence are the bridges to other
through which conviction can transmit itself. communities, such as that over which St. Paul
True, in People Movements this natural launched his Gentile movements. In order to
growth can be and, alas, sometimes has been, be called a bridge, the connection must be
slowed down by the atmosphere and tech- large enough to provide not merely for the
338 Chapter 50 THE BRIDGES OF GOD

baptism of individuals, but for the baptism of
enough groups in a short enough time and a
small enough area to create a People Move-
ment in the other community. More of these
bridges would be found if they were assidu-
ously sought. More would be used for the ex-
pansion of the Christian faith if leaders could
be led to understand them and become skilled
in their use.
The possibilities for growth in People
Movements are not by any means confined to
developing new movements. Leaders of
People Movement churches find that after the
church has attained power and size the nor-
mal process of growth, including the baptism
of individual seekers on the fringes of the
congregations, often produce more quiet
regular in-gatherings year after year than
was the case during the period of the greatest
exuberance of the movement. One might con-
clude that once a People Movement church
has gained a hundred thousand converts,
and has become indigenous to the land and
forms a noticeable proportion of the popula-
tion, it is likely to keep on growing. A moder-
ate amount of missionary assistance, at
places where the churches feel their need,
produces results far beyond that which those
accustomed to the mission station tradition
would consider possible.
The fifth advantage is that these movements
provide a sound pattern of becoming Christian. Be-
ing a Christian is seen to mean not change in
standard of living made possible by foreign
funds, but change in inner character made possible
by the power of God. In well-nurtured People
Movement churches, it is seen to mean the
regular worship of God, the regular hearing of
the Bible, the giving to the church, the disci-
pline of the congregation, the spiritual care ex-
ercised by the pastor, habits of prayer and per-
sonal devotion and the eradication of
un-Christian types of behavior. This life, cen-
tering in the village church, often built by the
Christians themselves, is seen to be the main
feature of the Christian religion. There are no
impressive institutions to divert attention
from the central fact. Christians become
“people with churches, who worship God”
rather than “people with hospitals who know
medicine,” or “people with schools who get
good jobs.” The health of the Christian move-
ment requires that the normal pattern be well
known, not merely to the non-Christian
peoples, but to the leaders of church and mis-
sion and to the rank and file of members. The
People Movement supplies the pattern which
can be indefinitely reproduced. It is the pat-
tern which with minor variations has obtained
throughout history.

Study Questions
1. Briefly define the term “the bridges of God” and explain the significance of these bridges for mis-
sion strategy.

2. Are group decisions valid? Why or why not? Explain the strategic importance of encouraging
“multi-individual” decisions.

3. At the time McGavran wrote The Bridges of God, the term “unreached people group” had not yet
been used. What is the significance of the idea of “people movements” for the ministry among
“unreached peoples?”